Category: Event

Sartyoon Sang Crafts Festival- SRSO

The 4th Sartyoon Sang Crafts Festival was organized by SRSO (Sindh Rural Support Organization) on 6th to 8th January – 2017, at Ocean Mall – Clifton, Karachi. The main reason behind the festival was to display the work around 1200 women artisans from the northern districts of Sindh.

SRSO is a non – for – profit organization, which is working in Sindh. It was established in 2003 with fund of RS 1 billion by government of Sindh for reducing poverty, skill development, health and education. While Sartyoon Sang (together with friends) is struggling to empower the women of slum communities of Sindh since 2011. Not only that, it also promotes crafts, culture, embroidery work, textile products and many others.

The festival attracted a large numbers of women residents of Clifton and other areas of the city since its very inauguration day. There was a wonderful display of Sindhi handicrafts by rural women, including home textiles, basketry, jewelry, dresses, dupattas, shawls, embellished with traditional embroidery and cutwork. It was a perfect mixture of all Sindhi ingredients under one roof.

The attendees were really enjoyed this festival so much, and were highly getting attracted by those beautiful crafts. As a result they were buying things like home-made slippers, crafts, decorated things, shawls, ajraks etc.

While talking about the festival Mr. Muhammed Dittal Kalhoro (CEO of SRSO) stated,

“The event objective was to facilitate better incomes for women artisans of rural Sindh.”

He continued,

“We have trained more than 10,000 women from some of the under developed regions of Jacobababad, Kandkot, Kashmore, shikarpur, Gohtki, Kambar- Shahdakot, Khairpur, and Sukkur that to help these women gain maximum monetary benefit from their skills, they have incorporated urban trends into their work.”

He further said,

“In order to set apart their work from what is available in the market, we have made a few innovations, such as net work done on the blankets.”

It was such a great initiative to promote Sindhi culture and crafts among urban people, by displaying amazing work by rural women at such platform where people go only for buying branded things. But it’s a beauty of Sindhi culture and its crafts that people automatically get attract towards it. And at the same time, it is also so beneficial for those rural women who are from the remote areas of Sindh that just because of this platform they get a chance to display their work due to which many people get attract, and as a result earn from it.

Here are the some of the pictures from Sartyoon Sang festival.

Gul-e-Daudi Premiere – A Tribute to Madam Noor Jahan

EMI Pakistan Ltd. held an exclusive premier of “Gul-e-Daudi (The Chrysanthemum), in tribute to Madam Noor Jehan”, on 25th November at Cinepax Cinema, Karachi.

The 15-minute film was directed by Umar Riaz. It was a fictional story based on the music of Madam Noor Jehan that had been selected from EMI Pakistan’s archives.

While talking about the film, Mr. Zeeshan Chaudary (General Manager of EMI Pakistan) said,

“We are pleased to be part of this initiative, the life and art of Madam Noor Jehan is filled with joy, love and splendid music. This short film is an effort to reminisce the golden era of Pakistan’s music industry with fresh techniques of audio and visual representation.”

He further added,

“With this we have tried to give audience a feel of the original music keeping in mind the requirements of state of the art studio and visual appeal for the audience. This film will take you back to the era of the melodious singer, who not just conquered the heart of millions but made history in subcontinent with her work.”

The event was attended by Ms. Aliya Iqbal Naqvi along with a group of panelists including Mr. Hameed Haroon (Chief Executive Officer of the Pakistan Herald Publications (Pvt.) Limited), Mr. Umar Riaz (Director of Gul-e-Daudi), Mr. Arshad Mahmud (Director Programmes and Administration), NAPA and Ms. Tina Sani among socialites, press, media, and bloggers

The film screening was followed by a discussion session among the panelists, and Question-Answer session was hosted by the director of the film to discuss the story and efforts of the production team.

Here are pictures from the premiere of Gul-e-Daudi.

1st ever ‘Sindh Literature Festival – SLF’

Sindh is one of the province of Pakistan. It has an importance because of its historical heritages, poets, Sufi singers, art, literature, and architecture among others. The culture of the Sindh is one of the traditional, and most colorful culture, and people of the Sindh love their culture from their heart and soul.

The first ever Sindh Literature Festival (SLF) was held on 4th to 6th November in Karachi. The most important reason behind organizing this festival was to promote Sindhi Culture, Sindhi Language, and to attract the Sindhi people throughout the country.

The three-day festival was formally inaugurated when Sufi singer Abida Parveen cut a ribbon alongside SLF chairperson Abdullah Hussain Haroon.

The three days festival was truly amazing, knowledgeable, interactive, and worth attending. It was divided into sessions i.e. book stalls, exhibition area, and food area among others.

When Abida Parveen went on stage and gave her soulful performance, the audience became crazy. From beginning to end, her performance grabbed the hearts of audience.

The second day of the festival included Book Launching session by Sindhi writers, Speaking session on different topics i.e. Literary and Intellectual tendencies of contemporary Sindhi literature, the economic Development in Sindh: Vision and Mystery, Languages in a Globalizing World, Journalism: New trends, Impact of visual media on society, etc. Mushaairo session and Music session. In which Natasha Baig gave her energetic performance, which made youth energetic, and they started dancing.

It also included live paintings, which were being painted by the painters of the Sindh and Karachi.

The third day of the festival also included Book Launching session by Sindhi writers, Speaking session on different topics i.e. Sindhi Electronic Media: Positives and Negatives, Science literature in Sindhi Language, Archaeological importance of Karachi, Modern Trends in Music, Print Media in modern age, etc. and Mushairo session among others.

In the end, I would like to say, it was taken such a great initiative to promote the culture, language, art and literature of Sindh.

Here are some pictures from Sindh Literature Festival.

Karachites celebrated the Azadi at Azadi Rocks Music Festival!

Azadi means freedom, and freedom means “the state of not being imprisoned.”

In past few years the people of Karachi having terror while going out from home to attend any event. But this year, Karachites proved by coming out from home to celebrate the Azadi “Independence Day” at different events that were held in the city of lights.

This year different events were organized in the city of lights on Independence Day of Pakistan. But the event which grab my attention was “Azadi Rocks Music Festival.”

Azadi Rocks Music Festival (ARMF) was the event, which was held on 14th August 2016, at Eduljee Road. And its venue was especially chosen to highlight the cultural heritage and historic importance. The event was managed by CKO Event Architectures and was sponsored by Faysal Bank.

The event started as per schedule, with a 100 person marching band parade along the entire stretch of the road and ended up on stage to perform the national anthem.

The event was hosted by Ahmed Godil, and then the show kicked off with an amazing performance by Dubai-based band “Chronicles of Khan.”

Natasha Bayg the leading vocalist of Kaya band followed up and gave her best performance, and then Mai Dhai performed on folk music.

After that Zoe Vicaji came on the stage and crowd began showing energy towards her performance, and then Fuzon gave his electrifying performance that the crowd became energetic, especially on the song “Ankho Ke Sagar.”

It was grand finale performance by Atif Aslam, which was one of the most awaited moment of ARMF. When Atif came on the stage, then crowd became crazy. With every song of Atif, the crowd seemed to be going wilder. The crowd was showing their love and craziness for Atif by singing along, humming and dancing on his songs. After the exit of Atif Aslam, the fireworks followed up, and the event was ended with the song “Jeeway Jeeway Pakistan.”

In the end, I would like to say that it was such an amazing and unforgettable Azadi event for the Karachites, which forced them to come out from home and make the Azadi of 2016 memorial.

“Azadi Rocks Music Festival,” Few hours to go!

CKO Event Architecture, the team behind the Karachi Eat Food Festival, is all set to host another event in Karachi “Azadi Rocks,” on 14th August to memorialize the Independence Day. The main idea is to bring together the citizens of Karachi in one place to celebrate the spirit of independence.

While talking about the event, Sara Chappra, Director CKO Events Architecture said,

“The objective with regards to the signature events like Karachi Eat, Lahore Eat, Light the Night – Chaand Raat and Azadi Rocks Music Festival is to give back to the people of Pakistan”

She further said,

“Our core business has always been the event management but over the last 3 years we started to design our own signature events that has been a huge success.”

She stated more,

“The aim of this event is to reclaim public places of Karachi. We are excited to organize another signature event, and we hope to have a positive response from Karachites.”

The Independence Day music concert has been designed for Karachites in order to revive public spaces around the city in the same way that Karachi Eat Food Festival revived Frere Hall. The venue of the event is Edulgee Road and it has been chosen specifically for the importance it holds in the urban fabric of Karachi. Featuring some of the biggest names in the Pakistani music scene today, Azadi Rocks is unique in its cause, include a good mix of local, folk and contemporary.

The event is sponsored by Faysal bank, and it will start with a 100 person marching band parading along the entire stretch of the road and ending up on stage to perform the national anthem. It will be followed by Kaya Band, Chronicles of Khan, Mai Dhai, Zoe Vicaji, Fuzon, and a grand finale performance by none other than Atif Aslam.

After the recent unfortunate incident in Quetta the management contemplated cancelation, however decided that although Pakistan is heartbroken and mourn with Quetta, cancelling the event and not standing up for our Independence on this day would be a far greater loss. Fear is, what is dividing us, what is preventing us from coming out and standing together. Our flag and our country is the only thing we have left that holds us together. That unites us. If today out of all the days we are expected to sit at home and not recognize our independence and honor all those lives that were lost so that we could live in freedom and be born AZAD then we have lost everything. We might as well give up now.

Azaadi Rocks Music Festival